Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I’ve read through all of the questions here on Amazon and there are some things that come up repeatedly. I’ll start with those things and then move on to my general impressions. I’ve owned the Vita for a few years now. HARDWARE VERSIONS There are two versions of the Vita: new and old / Slim and Fat / 2000 and 1000 series… The slim (2000) has rounded edges and completely transparent shoulder buttons. Compare to the original (1000) which has sharper edges and dark tinted shoulder buttons. Just a quick way to tell them apart in pictures. The original had an OLED screen which is technically better quality, but used more battery life and was more expensive. The new model has an LCD screen, still sharp picture but maybe a little less contrast, but much improved battery life and also has 1 gig internal memory and uses standard micro usb to charge instead of a proprietary cord. From here on I’ll be only referring to the new model unless I state otherwise. MEMORY There is 1 gig of memory onboard. This means it is built-in, not a card. Some sellers bundle the system with a memory card, others don’t; please read descriptions carefully or contact sellers if there is confusion. The 1 gig of onboard memory is sufficient if you will be playing mostly cartridge-based games as opposed to downloaded games. At some point though you may want to look into getting a Vita memory card. The best size to get is the biggest you can afford so that you limit the frequency of your having to swap out cards. 16 gigs should be plenty for the average person in my opinion. Memory cards will occasionally go on sale. 16 gigs can go down to about $20 on sale. They’re proprietary and different from standard SD cards. They are pricey compared to SD cards, but reliable. GAMES PRELOADED / BUNDLED Some sellers are bundling the system with a game. Please check the description. Otherwise, no there are not really games pre-installed, just some tutorial type games. WiFi You do not have to be connected to the internet to play Vita games. There are almost zero games that require that. An internet connection is needed for online play obviously. Buying games can be done over a PC or PS3 / PS4. Updates can be installed in a similar fashion. You do not have to pay to play online with the PS Vita. Similar to the PS3, online play is free. With PS4, you have to pay to play online. The service is called Playstation Plus. You do not have to pay to access the store. The store works like any other online apps store and is pre-installed on the Vita. PLAYSTATION NOW AND PLAYSTATION PLUS Both are subscription services. They are separate things. Both sometimes have free trial periods. PSNow is a streaming game service. It’s like Netflix for games in a sense. The games are not fully installed on your system, they are streamed, meaning they would need a continuous internet connection. Note: as of now (March 2017) it seems that PS Now is no longer available for the Vita, nor for any platforms besides PS4 and PC. PSPlus is like Amazon Prime. It’s sort of a Premium Membership Program. It allows you to download and install certain games for free; the selection of games is updated regularly; you do not ‘own’ these games, but you can play them as much as you want as long as you are a PSPlus member. Members also get reduced prices on some games. REMOTE PLAY If you have a PS4, you can basically use your PS4 remotely on your Vita. The PS4 does the hard work of rendering the game and it sends the image to your Vita’s screen. The Vita for it’s part sends your control inputs to the PS4. In effect you can play PS4 games on your Vita. This can be done at home on your home wifi network or it can be done over the internet--so if you’re somewhere else, and you’re connected to the internet on your Vita, your Vita can wake up your PS4 back home and control it from wherever you are. CROSS SAVE With some games, you can share saves between a ps4 copy and a Vita copy of the same game. CROSS BUY Some ps4 games come with a Vita copy. Some Vita games come with a PS4 copy. WAYS TO GET GAMES Buy physical game cartridges that are made specifically for the Vita, Download games directly to Vita from the PS store, Download games from the PS store to a PS3/4 or PC and transfer to Vita, Stream games using Playstation Now. GAME TYPES PS Vita Games: Made for the Vita. Either in physical cartridge format or downloaded from the store. Some of these are available on other systems such as PS3, PS4, PC. PSP Games: Made for the PSP, but can be played on the Vita. They will need to be downloaded from the store. The Vita does not accept PSP cartridges, called UMDs. PS1 Games: Made for the PS1, but can be played on the Vita. They will need to be downloaded from the store. The Vita does not accept PS1 cds. SPECIAL NOTE: Indie Games Many “Indie” games available on services like Steam are available on the Vita. If you don’t know what that means, I’ll say: There are a lot of games that are made by smaller game companies that are very popular with those who know about them, but are obscure compared to higher profile releases like Call of Duty or Pokemon. The catch-all term for these types of games (sometimes erroneously applied) is “Indie”. Some of the more popular of those games are available for Vita. Many people who love Indie games, buy a Vita for that reason alone. SPECIAL NOTE: JRPGs and Visual Novels There are a lot of these types of games. Many people who love JRPGs and/or Visual Novels, buy a Vita for this reason alone. REGIONS It used to be that game systems were only able to play games that were of the same “region” (group of countries). This is not the case for the Vita. Some games from Japan for example might have no English text option, so that’s a separate issue, but the game will play. In this example, online play and dlc would require a Japanese Playstation account. NEW GAMES / THE FUTURE As of my writing this (08/2016), Sony has stated that it is putting a hold on producing first party games for the Vita. This means that Sony itself will not be making new games, however many new games are on the horizon from third party companies: companies other than Sony itself. This is not a huge problem as many great games in Playstation’s past have come from third party companies, if not most. And even if new games were not coming, the existing content on offer is still large and diverse and it will be available at least in digital format through the online store for a very long time. PERSONAL NOTES (Opinions) I play the Vita in bed after the kids are down. I also take it on trips but I mostly play it at home. I have a PS3 and a powerful gaming PC that I use less than I use the Vita. It’s just a convenience factor and there’s just something hard to describe about the simple act of playing on a handheld instead of on a TV or computer monitor. The Vita has a marketing problem, always has. No one knows about it when a new game is released. On my Vita game wishlist I have about 70 games. On another list I have about 25 that are not released yet but are planned for this year or next. There are games out and there are games coming. The games will continue to be released with no fanfare / promotion, but they’re out there. Check the Playstation Store regularly for sales. Check Amazon for deals on physical cartridges and memory cards. Read websites like PocketGamer, Destructoid, or iPlayPSVita for news on upcoming games. Or simply Google “best Vita games” and see if any of those strike your fancy, then look them up in the aforementioned stores. Unfortunately, just going to Target will get you nowhere and don’t expect to be passively informed of new releases. The Vita feels great, looks great, it’s a solid dependable piece of hardware, currently priced attractively at $156. It has an enormous library of games and I prefer it to playing on a TV or monitor.